Charter Revision Commission to meet for first time on Tuesday

CROMWELL -- The newly appointed Charter Revision Commission will meet for the first time on Tuesday, and will start what promises to be the long task of looking for ways to change how the town annually approves its operating budget.

JIM HICKEY

Published 12:00 am, Monday, September 30, 2002

It took four referendums to pass this year's general government and education budgets. Each time the budget was voted down, it went to a town meeting the next week, and then on to a referendum the following week. As a result, it effectively took two full weeks to send a revised budget back to the voters, something some town officials felt was too long.

The commission has already been appointed by the Board of Selectmen. Members include two elected officials: Mary Amenta, the registrar of voters, and Bill Bouton, a member of the town board of assessment appeals. Other members include residents Tony Amenta, Carl Banic, Bill Eager, Nancy Piantek, and Michael Comilleri.

The commission will look at several options that they hope will speed up and simplify the budget process. One of the possibilities is that the budget would automatically go to a referendum. As it stands now, the charter states that the budget must be approved at a town meeting, unless a petition to send it to a referendum is turned in with the required number of signatures

In the first two votes, the budget proposals had initially been slated to go to a town meeting for public consideration, instead of a referendum vote. But, in both cases, a group of residents petitioned successfully to send the budget to the polls, where more people have traditionally been able to vote on it.

In the final two votes, however, the Board of Selectmen agreed to voluntarily send the budget to a referendum. Each time, however, two weeks elapsed between votes. Because the budgets were approved so late, the town was actually forced to operate under last fiscal year's operating budget while the new one was still being debated.

According to officials, the commission will go over all aspects of the charter, and will not just focus on the budget process.

The commission will elect a chairman, vice-chairman and secretary when it meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. in room 222 of town hall. It will also set the time and date of future meetings.